Allen attended graduate school at the University of Southern California where she was awarded the Jack Nicholson Directing Scholarship as the most promising director of her class, and short-listed for an International Clio Award for"Eyeball Eddie," an edgy dark comedy depicting a stormy relationship between a prosthetic glass eye and the insecure boy stuck behind it, which caught the eye of studios, leading to her feature directorial debut, "Aquamarine."
Elizabeth Allen most recently released the Fox film "Ramona and Beezus," a feature film adaptation of her favorite childhood book series by Newbery Award winning author, Beverly Cleary. The film stars Selena Gomez, Ginnifer Goodwin, John Corbett, Josh Duhamel, Sandra Oh, and 9-year old newcomer Joey King as the imaginative Ramona Quimby. Ramona and Beezus was awarded a "Certified Fresh" from Rotten Tomatoes and Nominated for a Teen Choice Award for Selena Gomez and Won the Young Artist Award for Joey King. Allen was the recipient of the WIN award for Best Female Director of the year. Prior to that, Allen directed "Aquamarine" starring Emma Roberts. The film was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards for "Choice Breakout (Female)" and "Choice Chick Flick" and two nominations and one win for the Young Artist Awards.
She is attached to "Is He The One" at Fox 2000, a story of a woman on her wedding day, which flashes back to the heroine's three greatest loves before we learn whose waiting for her at the alter. She is also attached to adapt and direct Elinor Lipman's novel "The Pursuit of Alice Thrift" (Universal Pictures) and direct the independent film "My Mother's Boyfriend" (Depth of Field). She has written numerous screenplays, including an adaptation of Jerry Spinelli's children's book, "Stargirl" (Paramount Studios), original musical "Promdress" (Disney Features) and "Driving While Infatuated" (Fox Searchlight). Allen has since directed television episodes of "Gossip Girl," "90210," "Life Unexpected," "Franklin & Bash," and "Vampire Diaries."
A Cornell University graduate, Allen resides in Los Angeles and is a member of the DGA, the WGA and the Editor's Guild.